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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24740347">so the literal inspiration of the devil is teaching you about consent</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alienea/pseuds/Alienea'>Alienea</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleasekalemenow/pseuds/pleasekalemenow'>pleasekalemenow</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Inherent Romanticism of Dragons [24]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Mechanisms (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Multi, Other, also implied doctor trauma, implied previous dubcon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 03:55:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,110</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24740347</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alienea/pseuds/Alienea, https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleasekalemenow/pseuds/pleasekalemenow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night and your personal eldritch symbiote is there to teach you about how consent works.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Inherent Romanticism of Dragons [24]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1832185</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>81</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>so the literal inspiration of the devil is teaching you about consent</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Marius is dozing soundly in Lyfrassir’s arms. They can’t sleep at all. They almost do, a few times, but- well. They really don’t want him to slip away again. So they just keep their eyes closed, in case he wakes up and looks up at them. They don’t want him to worry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nyarl has been waiting for a good time to try and have a conversation with Lyfrassir about consent, specifically sexually, but. Well. It translates. This is definitely </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> a great time, but if Lyfrassir isn’t going to sleep, it’s as good a time as any. So Nyarl appears above Lyfrassir, well aware that they’re awake, and uses a little magic to make sure Marius will stay asleep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lyfrassir. Still having trouble sleeping?” Nyarl is playing with a piece of paper, folding it up in preparation to hand it over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, It’s just that the inside of my eyelids are so captivating. I can’t look away.” They do not open their eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, well, in that case I can leave you to it, but I did in fact write up something, and I thought you might want to look at it. You don’t have to, obviously. I also thought you might want to discuss where we’re going from here. Any number of things. Or you could sleep to avoid those conversations.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Either way, Nyarl figures the outcome will be good for Lyfrassir.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lyf sighs. They aren’t going to sleep. They open their eyes and regard her tiredly. “What did you write up?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nyarl hands over the pamphlet. It is, in fact, just as brightly colored as </span>
  <a href="https://www.fpa.org.uk/sites/default/files/consent-giving-getting-respecting-leaflet.pdf">
    <span>the pdf</span>
  </a>
  <span> and despite the low light, Nyarl has made it perfectly visible to Lyf.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, we had that conversation about consent, and I thought a pamphlet could be helpful. I’m happy to clarify any part of it that might be confusing.” Nyarl has eldritchly highlighted certain sections, including the non-verbal signs and the last two bullets of giving and withholding consent. “I stole bits of it from some controversial books, added some of my own, mixed it up, did some editing, and some design. I am accepting feedback and questions.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lyf reads through it a few times, vague panic rising because mmmm this. Is a lot. It- mmmmmmmm. They focus on the one question they’re comfortable putting into words. “Whatever possessed you to choose such a horribly gauche color scheme?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought it gave it a nice pop. Also once I had made the paper purple I had to go bright for the little boxes and it had to stand out, so green and orange made sense. And then I couldn’t go with black text, because the legibility would be bad, so white text. So I’m not changing the color scheme.” Nyarl does not press on other questions. “You can keep the pamphlet. I’m making more and dropping them in random places around the world. Hopefully the bright colors and indestructibility will get them picked up and passed around.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lyf shakes their head and hands it back to nym. “I don’t need it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nyarl frowns.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe not with the people here, but. I think it’s still important information, Lyfrassir. Given- given. At least hold onto it for a bit?” Nyarl puts it on the bedside table.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>need</span>
  </em>
  <span> it.” They close their eyes, brow furrowed. The pamphlet erupts in cold flame.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The offer of murder for those involved is still on the table.” As is the pamphlet. Nyarlathotep was not kidding about it being indestructible. “But we don’t have to talk about that. I did mention we’d renegotiate when you got your revenge, but there wasn’t revenge to be gotten, here. I don’t suppose there’s still someone out there you’d like revenge on? Or we could just renegotiate without the revenge having happened, if that’s what you want.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lyf doesn’t hesitate. “Odin.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright. We can get Odin dead. Do you want to do that now, wait a bit, do some teleportation, there’s a lot of options. Probably best considered after a good night’s sleep and Raphaella getting in some healing on your head, though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lyf purses their ilps. “...Marius deserves to participate. He’s the one she fucked over.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure, if he wants to,” Nyarl agrees. “I suppose I should introduce myself to everyone anyways, so they don’t have to wonder about the mysterious floating figure hanging around you. Well. Raphaella could probably tell them, but the probability she’s going to be doing anything but hunting you down to make you sit still for healing is very low.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lyf grimaces. Witches are closer than they’d like to doctors, really. “Couldn’t you just do that instantly?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, but that’s probably not the best option for your brain. Getting things back slower gives it time to adjust. Besides, I taught her, she’s not going to fuck up. I’ll stick around while she’s doing it and double-check her work, if you want.” Nyarl grimaces. “Human brains are very fiddly. If you’d just gotten the injury, it would be easier for me to fix. But your brain has had time to heal with the injury, and fiddling around and resetting it might not be great for you. She’s good at the body, in any case. Made a living for a while going around transing genders.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...Fine. I guess.” They pause, pondering getting their uterus yeeted. “You’ll double-check?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you want me to, sure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright. You know how to contact me, just let me know when. Or maybe I’ll just hang around. Ashes has quite an interesting hoard, and I’d like to explore it.” Nyarl leans back, still hovering in the air. “Would you like some music to help get to sleep? I’ll hang around, make sure nothing happens.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lyf hesitates. “...Shouldn’t wake Marius.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I won’t. Did a bit of magic, made sure he wouldn’t wake up because I was bothering you. I could yell right in his ear and he wouldn’t wake up, but if someone came through the door he would. Well, probably, I don’t know what type of sleeper he is.” Nyarl pulls out a violin. “Is that a yes on the music?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a moment, Lyf nods, their eyes falling shut again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nyarl starts playing. It’s still eerie, a bit to the left or right or just sideways of normal music, but unlike other nights, the music is hopeful, now, a bit more upbeat. There’s not exactly a key change that Lyf can point to, but the tone of the music has undeniably changed. By now, Lyf’s body takes Nyarlathrotep’s strange music as a sign to begin finally winding down, and it isn’t long before the Void’s song lulls them to sleep.</span>
</p>
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